Methods and systems for determining variance between criteria

ABSTRACT

A computer-implemented method may include receiving a customer submission for a vehicle from a customer device, the customer submission including a plurality of customer criteria; receiving a request from the customer device to provide the customer submission to a merchant device; and receiving a reply from the merchant device, the reply including a plurality of merchant criteria. The computer-implemented method also may include determining a variance between the customer criteria and the merchant criteria, and transmitting, to the merchant device, at least one of the variance or the customer criteria.

TECHNICAL FIELD

Various embodiments of the present disclosure relate generally tocommunication between a user device and a merchant device and, moreparticularly, to methods and systems for determining a variance betweena plurality of criteria.

BACKGROUND

Merchants involved with the sale of high-price, high-value products relyupon frequent communication with customers to facilitate sales.Effective customer communication is especially necessary in competitivemarkets in which merchants compete with other merchants that offersimilar, or even identical, products. Large purchases, such as vehicles,real property, large machines, etc., typically involve one or moreadditional smaller transactions or costs in addition to the actual costof the product itself. For example, the purchase of a home may includerealtor fees, loan fees and other closing costs, insurance, or otherassociated costs. The purchase of a vehicle may include an interestrate, loan term, tax, title, and license costs, or other associatedcosts.

During the transaction (e.g., negotiation) process, a customer may offeran initial offer, or express one or more preferences relating to one ormore of the costs associated with the purchase of a high-value product.The merchant may wish to provide a modified offer or counter-offer.Traditionally, this offer and counter-offer process involves estimationby both the customer and the merchant. Thus, the customer may need torepeatedly communicate with the merchant to determine the contents of amerchant's offer. Even when the customer is provided with the merchant'soffer, the customer may be unable to directly compare this offer to thecustomer's initial offer or preferences. This may be particularlyproblematic when a customer is evaluating the products offered for saleby multiple merchants, the purchase of which involves financing and/orsignificant expense.

The present disclosure is directed to addressing one or more of thesechallenges. The background description provided herein is for thepurpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Unlessotherwise indicated herein, the materials described in this section arenot prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted tobe prior art, or suggestions of the prior art, by inclusion in thissection.

SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE

According to certain aspects of the disclosure, methods and systems aredisclosed for determining a variation between differing submissionshaving a plurality of individual components. Each of the examplesdisclosed herein may include one or more of the features described inconnection with any of the other disclosed examples.

In one aspect, a computer-implemented method may include receiving acustomer submission for a vehicle from a customer device, the customersubmission including a plurality of customer criteria, receiving arequest from the customer device to provide the customer submission to amerchant device, and receiving a reply from the merchant device, thereply including a plurality of merchant criteria. Thecomputer-implemented method may also include determining a variancebetween the customer criteria and the merchant criteria, andtransmitting, to the merchant device, at least one of the variance orthe customer criteria.

In another aspect, a computer-implemented method may include receiving acustomer submission for a vehicle, the customer submission including aplurality of customer criteria; receiving a merchant reply, the merchantreply including a plurality of merchant criteria; and determining avariance between the customer criteria and the merchant criteria. Thecomputer-implemented method may also include causing a display device todisplay an indication corresponding to the variance; determining anupdated variance; and causing the display device to update theindication based on the updated variance.

In another aspect, a system for providing customer information to avehicle merchant may include a memory storing instructions and at leastone processor executing the instructions to perform a process. Theprocess performed by the at least one processor may include receiving acustomer submission for a vehicle, the customer submission including aplurality of customer criteria; and receiving a merchant reply, themerchant reply including a plurality of merchant criteria including atleast one of a vehicle price, a trade-in value, a merchant fee, aservice contract, a tax cost, a title fee, or a license fee. The processperformed by the at least one processor may also include determining avariance between the customer criteria and the merchant criteria; andtransmitting the variance to a merchant device, wherein the variancereflects a customer benefit, and wherein the transmitting the varianceincludes transmitting an indication corresponding to the customerbenefit to the merchant device.

According to additional aspects of the disclosure, a non-transitorycomputer-readable medium stores instructions that, when executed by oneor more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform theaforementioned computer-implemented methods or the operations that theaforementioned system is configured to perform.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description andthe following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory onlyand are not restrictive of the disclosed embodiments, as claimed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute apart of this specification, illustrate various exemplary embodiments andtogether with the description, serve to explain the principles of thedisclosed embodiments.

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of an exemplary system environment, accordingto one or more embodiments.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating the exemplary system environment,according to one or more embodiments.

FIG. 3 is a representation of an exemplary display presented on acustomer device or a merchant device, according to one or moreembodiments.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of an exemplary process for transmitting at leastone of a variance or customer criteria to a merchant device, accordingto one or more embodiments.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of an exemplary process for determining andproviding an updated variance, according to one or more embodiments.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram depicting an exemplary system that may executetechniques presented herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

The terminology used below may be interpreted in its broadest reasonablemanner, even though it is being used in conjunction with a detaileddescription of certain specific examples of the present disclosure.Indeed, certain terms may even be emphasized below; however, anyterminology intended to be interpreted in any restricted manner will beovertly and specifically defined as such in this Detailed Descriptionsection. Both the foregoing general description and the followingdetailed description are exemplary and explanatory only and are notrestrictive of the features, as claimed.

In this disclosure, the term “computer system” generally encompasses anydevice or combination of devices, each device having at least oneprocessor that executes instructions from a memory medium. Additionally,a computer system may be included as a part of another computer system.

In this disclosure, the term “based on” means “based at least in parton.” The singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” include plural referentsunless the context dictates otherwise. The term “exemplary” is used inthe sense of “example” rather than “ideal.” The term “or” is meant to beinclusive and means either, any, several, or all of the listed items.The terms “comprises,” “comprising,” “includes,” “including,” or othervariations thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion suchthat a process, method, or product that comprises a list of elementsdoes not necessarily include only those elements, but may include otherelements not expressly listed or inherent to such a process, method,article, or apparatus. Relative terms, such as, “substantially” and“generally,” are used to indicate a possible variation of ±10% of astated or understood value.

In the following description, embodiments will be described withreference to the accompanying drawings. As will be discussed in moredetail below, in various embodiments, a customer submission and amerchant reply may be provided to one or more comparison tools. Avariance between the customer criteria and the merchant reply may bedetermined. The comparison tool may transmit at least one of thevariance or the customer criteria to the merchant device. An updatedvariance may be determined. The comparison tool may cause a displaydevice of the merchant device and/or a user device to display anindication based on the variance or based on an updated variance.

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary system environment 100 for according toone or more embodiments of the present disclosure. The systemenvironment 100 may include computing devices, such as one or more userdevice(s) 20, one or more merchant device(s) 40, a service system 60,and a merchant or comparison tool system 70. A plurality of merchants 12(e.g., vehicle dealerships) may each use one or more merchant devices40. Service system 60 may include a prequalification or qualificationdatabase 62, a cost database 64, and other databases useful in providingcustomer or product information. A comparison tool 70 may be incommunication with each of the user devices 20 and each of the merchantdevices 40 via a network 110, which may be the Internet or any othersuitable communication infrastructure or network. In one aspect, servicesystem 60 and comparison tool 70 may be integrated with each other(e.g., may be provided by one or more computing devices or as part of adistributed platform of devices). Such a configuration may facilitatethe ability of comparison tool 70 to receive information fromqualification database 62 and cost database 64.

User device 20 may include a computer system such as a desktop computer,mobile computer, or cellular phone that is operated by a user. In oneaspect, the user of user device 20 may be a potential customer of one ormore merchants 12. User device 20 may include memory, one or moreprocessors, communication interfaces, input devices, and output devices,as will be described in further detail below with reference to FIG. 6. Acommunication interface (e.g., communication interface 660, FIG. 6) mayfacilitate communication between user device 20 and tool 70 via network110. A display of user device 20 and/or one or more I/O devices mayfacilitate entry or modification of customer information via a customerportal, as described below.

Merchants 12 may be present in a plurality of different physicallocations and may possess a stock or inventory of products, such asvehicles. In the example shown in FIG. 1, a first merchant A, a secondmerchant B, and a Zth merchant Z may each have one or more merchantdevices 40 in communication with network 110. Any number of merchants 12with any number of merchant devices 40 may be included in systemenvironment 100. In one aspect, merchant devices 40 may include acomputer system such as a desktop computer, mobile computer, or cellularphone that is operated by personnel of merchant 12.

Service system 60 may include one or more databases that storeinformation for transmission to user device 20, merchant device 40,and/or comparison tool 70. Each of these databases 62 and 64 may includeone or more storage devices, such as solid-state storage media (e.g.,solid state drives and/or removable flash memory), optical storage media(e.g., optical discs), and/or magnetic storage media (e.g., hard diskdrives) for storing information.

Qualification database 62 may store loan prequalification information orqualification information corresponding to a user of user device 20.Loan prequalification information may be specific to an individual userand may be determined based on the user's credit worthiness (e.g., acredit score such as a FICO score), a user's income, and/or otherfactors. Loan prequalification information may include at least one itemof prequalification information. Items of prequalification informationmay include an approval amount (e.g., a pre-approval dollar value suchas a maximum financing amount or an appropriate range of financing), aloan interest rate (e.g., an Annual Percentage Rate or APR orappropriate range of interest rates indicating a lowest interest rateand a highest interest rate associated with the individual user), amonthly loan payment and/or an expiration date for the loanprequalification. Each item of prequalification information may form acustomer criterion.

Service system 60 may provide a qualification transmission (orqualification) to comparison tool 70 via network 110, as describedbelow. The qualification provided to comparison tool 70 may include oneor more of the items of loan prequalification information stored byqualification database 62. The qualification may be indicative of one ormore values or ranges associated with a respective item of loanprequalification information, such as an approval amount value, amonthly loan payment value, or both. These values may be calculated inreal-time (or near real-time) according to a credit policy of one ormore lenders based on financial information received from a user as partof a prequalification process and thus may be considered as a truepricing quote, as opposed to an estimate. The qualification may beprovided from service system 60 without requiring a credit inquiry (suchas a so-called “hard credit pull”), and thus may be received and/orupdated without adversely affecting a credit score of the userassociated with the qualification.

Cost database 64 may store cost information including a tax cost, atitle cost, or a license fee (registration fee), which may collectivelybe referred to as a tax, title, and license cost. Each (or some) itemsof cost information may be determined based on a location of a customer,a location of a merchant 12, or both. This location may be based on alocation determined by user device 20 (e.g., by a global positioningsystem receiver of user device 20), and/or by merchant device 40 (e.g.,by a global positioning system receiver of merchant device 40).Alternatively, location may be determined according to any otheravailable methodology without departing from the scope of the presentdisclosure. If desired, cost database 64 may also store informationcorresponding to average industry costs, such as average industry costsfor vehicle price, insurance, service contracts (warranty), and GAP(guaranteed asset protection) insurance. Cost information may bereceived from an industry database or may be provided by service system60 itself, based on records of a service provider, such as a financialservice provider.

Databases 62 and 64 may be in communication with comparison tool 70, andmay provide customer criteria via database 62 (such as loanprequalification information included in the qualification) and costinformation via database 64, to comparison tool 70 in a secure manner.Secure communication may be desirable as qualification database 62 mayinclude proprietary and/or confidential information such as informationthat may allow for identification of an individual (personallyidentifiable information of a customer or user). Thus, service system 60may limit access to one or more categories of information storedtherein, or one or more particular pieces of information stored therein.

Comparison tool 70 may include a computer system or other computingdevice or may be provided in a distributed manner across a plurality ofdevices. Comparison tool 70 may include one or more servers, databases,etc. that provide a customer portal to user device 20 and a merchantportal to merchant device 40. It is to be understood that a portal, asdescribed herein, includes applications (e.g., an application installedon user device 20 and/or merchant device 40), Internet websites,Internet-based software applications, or a combination thereof.Regardless of the precise implementation of comparison tool 70, tool 70may facilitate the secure sharing of customer information to merchantdevice 40 and allows user device 20 to provide customer criteria or anupdated customer criteria, as well as view a merchant reply or anupdated merchant reply, as described below.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating communication between features ofsystem environment 100. As can be seen in FIG. 2, comparison tool 70 mayreceive customer criteria from service system 60 and user device 20. Forexample, tool 70 may receive a customer submission from user device 20(e.g., corresponding to a user of user device 20), a qualification fromqualification database 62, and cost information from cost database 64.The customer criteria received by tool 70 may include two or more of avehicle price, a loan term, a down payment, a trade-in value, aninsurance cost, a merchant fee, a loan interest rate, an amount offinancing, a service contract cost, a tax cost, a title fee, a licensefee, or a monthly payment amount (a monthly loan payment amount, a totalmonthly payment amount based on the customer submission, qualification,and cost information, or both a monthly loan payment amount and a totalmonthly payment amount). The customer criteria may also include aparticular product and/or features or options associated with theproduct. When the product is a vehicle, the customer criteria mayidentify the vehicle (e.g., by make, model, VIN number, etc.) and mayinclude one or more desired features associated with the vehicle (e.g.,vehicle type, color, material options such as leather or upholstery,etc.) The customer criteria may include one or more backend products,such as service contract, extended warranty, GAP insurance, etc.Additionally, comparison tool 70 may receive one or more merchantreplies from merchant device 40 that include a plurality of merchantcriteria.

The qualification received by comparison tool 70 may include, forexample, an approval amount or amount of financing (e.g., a pre-approvaldollar value such as a maximum financing amount or an appropriate rangeof financing), an interest rate (e.g., an Annual Percentage Rate or APRor appropriate range of interest rates indicating a lowest interest rateand a highest interest rate associated with the individual user), amonthly loan payment, and/or a loan expiration date. One or more itemsincluded in the qualification may be determined based on customercriteria contained in the customer submission (e.g., a term length). Thequalification may also be determined based on cost items (costinformation) transmitted from cost database 64 via service system 60,such as a tax cost, a title cost, a license fee, or a combinationthereof. The items included in the qualification may form customercriteria that are received by comparison tool 70 in addition to thecustomer criteria received from user device 20.

Comparison tool 70 may be configured to present user device 20 with auser portal 22 to allow an operator of user device 20 to interact withcomparison tool 70. For example, comparison tool 70 may cause a displayof user device 20 to display interactive objects, prompts, etc., via auser portal 22 to allow a customer to input one or more items ofcustomer criteria for the customer submission (see, e.g., FIG. 3). Whenthe product is a vehicle, a product preference may be indicative of oneor more particular vehicles (e.g., as identified by a unit vehicleidentification number), a particular make and/or model, a particularclass of vehicle (e.g., sedan, sports car, truck, etc.), or one or moredesired features of a vehicle. For example, a product entry 24 of userportal 22 may allow a user to input a product preference criterion.Product entry 24 may also allow a user to identify a product that iscurrently in the possession of a particular merchant (e.g., a particulardealer 12). The price may be provided as a value that reflects the priceof the vehicle without additional costs (e.g., one or more of the costsstored in cost database 64).

Budget entry 26 may facilitate generation of a budget preferencecriterion that may be included in the customer submission. Exemplarybudget preferences may include a desired total monthly payment (e.g., amaximum acceptable total monthly payment or a range of acceptablemonthly payment values), a monthly interest payment (e.g., a maximumacceptable interest payment or a range of acceptable interest paymentvalues), a down payment (e.g., a maximum acceptable down payment or arange of acceptable down payment values), and/or a loan term (e.g., asingle loan term or a range of acceptable loan terms). The customersubmission may include trade-in information corresponding to a user'strade-in offer (e.g., make, model, trim, mileage, etc.) entered viatrade-in entry 28. In one aspect, trade-in information may include or beindicative of an industry value of a trade-in or a proposed value of atrade-in. If desired, a backend product entry 30 may be provided for auser to specify a desired or suggested backend product (e.g., a servicecontract, extended warranty, GAP insurance, or other backend product,and a maximum acceptable value or range of acceptable values for one ormore of the backend products).

Comparison tool 70 may also receive a request from user device 20. Thisrequest may be initiated via the customer portal, for example. In oneaspect, this request may be indicative of a request to transmit at leastone customer criterion contained in the customer submission, and/or atleast customer criterion contained in the qualification, to merchantdevice 40. The request may also be indicative of a request to transmitone or more items of cost information to merchant device 40. In oneaspect, tool 70 may request and/or receive the qualification and thecost transmitted by system 60, in response to the request from userdevice 20.

In one aspect, the qualification, the cost, and the customer submissionmay be securely stored by comparison tool 70, e.g., in an encryptedmanner. Comparison tool 70 may request an authentication from themerchant device 40 before transmitting customer criteria of the customersubmission or customer criteria of the qualification. The authenticationmay be in the form of a username, password, and/or an alternative oradditional authentication layer (e.g., via e-mail or SMS message). Thus,sensitive customer information such as personally-identifiableinformation may be secured by tool 70 and accessed only by authorizedpersonnel of merchant 12 in response to the generation of the request.

The request may also be indicative of a request for merchant 12 toprovide a merchant reply. Merchant portal 42 may facilitate thegeneration and secure transmission of the merchant reply in response tothe request. Merchant portal 42 may, in a manner similar to user portal22, be presented on a merchant device 40 via comparison tool 70. Thus,merchant portal 42 may cause a display of merchant device 40 to displayinteractive objects, prompts, etc., via portal 42 to allow a merchant 12to input one or more items of a merchant reply. For example, portal 42may present a series of entries similar to entries 24, 26, 28, and 30 ofuser portal 22. In one aspect, merchant portal 42 may present productentry 44, budget entry 46, trade-in entry 48, backend product entry 50,and/or qualification entry 52.

In one aspect, the request may be initiated by user device 20 tofacilitate remote communication between user device 20 and merchantdevice 40 (e.g., when user device 20 is not present at a location ofmerchant 12). The request may allow the user device 20 to share one ormore items of the customer submission without being present at merchant12. In response to the request, comparison tool 70 may provide one ormore items of the merchant reply to user device 20. Thus, the requestmay correspond to a request for a quote from merchant 12. The merchantreply may reflect an offer transmitted to user device 20 via comparisontool 70 in response to one or more items contained in the customersubmission. Thus, communication between a user and a merchant may befacilitated without the need for the user device 20 to be physicallypresent at merchant 12. In another aspect, when user device 20 ispresent at merchant 12, a merchant reply may be provided to user device20 via comparison tool 70 in response to, for example, a proposalinitiated by merchant 12. For example, merchant device 40 may beconfigured to provide a merchant reply (or proposal) to a user device 20present at merchant 12 to trigger a notification displayed on userdevice 20. This notification may correspond to a new merchant reply oran update to a previous merchant reply. The notification may, whenaccessed by the user, cause user device 20 to present a display withinformation representative of the merchant reply and/or the customersubmission (e.g., display 300), as described below.

The merchant reply may include one or more items that correspond torespective items of the customer submission. Entries 44, 46, 48, and 50,may respectively correspond to entries 24, 26, 28, and 30, and mayinclude corresponding criteria from the perspective of the merchant.Additionally, entry 52 may provide a merchant qualification criterion ofthe merchant reply. The merchant qualification may include one or moreitems that may be compared to the items of the qualification transmittedby system 60. In one aspect, the merchant qualification of entry 52 maybe received from one or more lenders. The one or more lenders may beassociated with the merchant and/or comparison tool 70 or service system60.

Once tool 70 receives at least an initial customer submission and aninitial merchant reply, tool 70 may determine a variance between thecustomer submission and the merchant reply relative to at least onecriterion. In an exemplary configuration, tool 70 may be configured todetermine the variance for every item contained in the customersubmission and merchant reply. Alternatively, the variance may bedetermined for a subset of customer and merchant criteria.

In one aspect, the variance may reflect a difference between a criterionof the customer submission and the corresponding criterion of themerchant reply. For example, the product item or criterion contained inthe customer submission may include a corresponding value or price, forexample $19,000. The product criterion in the merchant reply may includea merchant value which may be higher than, lower than, or the same asthe customer value. For example, the merchant value may be $18,500. Insuch an example, the variance may be represented by the difference inprice, or $500. Each variance may be reflected from the perspective ofthe merchant or from the perspective of the customer. In the example ofa difference in price of $500, this difference may be represented fromthe perspective of the customer (e.g., −$500, representing a lower pricepresented in the merchant reply) or from the perspective of the merchant(e.g., $500, representing a larger value in the customer criteria).Additionally, a quantifiable value may be represented by illustrating apercentage. In this example, a value of −2.6% (or 2.6%) may also beemployed as a variance.

In one aspect, when an item in the customer submission is empty (e.g., auser of the user device 20 does not input a backend product item), thevariance may provide an assumed value for the empty item. This assumedvalue may be an average value or may be a default value such as zero.Thus, a variance may include a difference between the empty item and thecorresponding item contained in the merchant reply. In one aspect, costdatabase 64 may provide an average value, which may be an industryaverage. While the variance may be determined by comparison tool 70, itmay also be possible to determine the variance by merchant device 40,for example by transmitting the customer criteria to the merchantdevice.

FIG. 3 provides a depiction of an exemplary display 300 presented by adisplay device of user device 20 (e.g., implemented via user portal 22)or merchant device 40 (e.g., implemented via merchant portal 42). As canbe seen in FIG. 3, display 300 may include a product indicator 310 thatcorresponds to the product identified by product entry 24 and/or productentry 44. Display 300 may also include one or more entries 330 thatallow the user, the merchant, or both, to modify the customer submissionand merchant reply. A comparison indicator 350 may provide a visualindication of the customer criteria, the merchant reply, and thevariance between the submission and reply. Comparison entry 320 andupdate entry 322 may facilitate transmission and update of the customersubmission and/or merchant reply.

Indicator 310 of display 300 may include a product image 312 thatprovides a visual and/or textual indication of the product. The productidentified in indicator 310 may correspond to a product identified viaproduct entry 24 and/product entry 44. A merchant indicator 314 mayidentify the merchant 12 that possesses the product identified byproduct image 312 (e.g., the merchant having supplied/associate with themerchant reply).

Entries 330 may present items (criteria) of a customer submission or amerchant reply. Entries 330 may also present customer criteria of thequalification, and/or cost information, from service system 60. In theexample shown in FIG. 3, display 300 is illustrated from the perspectiveof the user device 20. Thus, entries 330 may correspond to the customersubmission and may be used to provide items in the customer submissionportion of comparison indicator 350. Display 300 may be provided in asimilar format for the merchant device. In such a case, entries 330 maycorrespond to the merchant reply and may be used to provide the items inthe merchant reply portion of comparison indicator 350.

The product indicated in indicator 310 and price entered in productentry 44 may have been previously selected by navigating imagescorresponding to products in the inventory of a particular merchant 12,for example. Additionally or alternatively, entries 330 may include aprice entry which corresponds to product entry 24, 44 and allows a userto set a particular price. Entries 330 may additionally include a termentry, a down payment entry, and a merchant fees entry, which mayprovide an exemplary budget entry 26 or 46. A trade-in entry may form anexample of trade-in entry 28, 48. An entry for warranty and GAPinsurance may correspond to backend products entry 30, 50.

One or more entries 330 may be determined based at least in part on thequalification received from qualification database 62. For example, anAPR or other exemplary customer criterion of the qualification may bedisplayed in display 300 may be determined based on credit worthinessdata for a particular user of user device 20, as described above.Additionally, customer or merchant criteria, including thequalification, may be updated based on the information provided viaentries 330. A value of an APR may be revised (updated) in response toan update of one or more of the entries 330. For example, the APR may beupdated in response to a change in the loan term input via entry 26.This updated APR may be received from service system 60. Thus, when avalue such as a loan term is modified via budget entries 26 or 46, tool70 may request an updated qualification from system 60 based on theupdated value.

As shown in the lower portion of FIG. 3, comparison indicator 350 maydepict a monthly payment amount criterion of the customer criteriaand/or the merchant reply. This monthly payment may be a total monthlypayment that is calculated based on a plurality of the other criteria(e.g., in the customer submission and qualification) and costs (e.g.,price, APR, term, down payment, trade-in, backend products such aswarranty and GAP, merchant fees, and tax, title and license). Thus, themonthly payment criterion may be updated in response to the modificationof customer or merchant criteria. When one or more items of customercriteria are updated or modified, comparison tool 70 may request anupdated qualification (including e.g., customer criteria such as anupdated loan interest rate, approval amount, and/or expiration date),enabling the receipt and presentation of up-to-date prequalificationinformation (e.g., in real-time) and real time adjustment of the monthlypayment criterion. Each comparison indicator 350 may be updated inreal-time accordingly. A monthly loan payment amount may be presentedinstead of, or in addition to, a total monthly payment amount.

In one aspect, one or more entries 330 may be locked for editing basedon the identity of the device. For example, comparison tool 70 may allowuser device 20 to enter or edit a term, trade-in, merchant fees, andwarranty and GAP, to construct a customer submission. The price, APR,tax, title and license, or other entries may be fixed (non-editable) foruser device 20 as these entries may be determined from the merchantdevice 40, qualification database 62, and cost database 64,respectively.

Comparison indicator 350 may be based on both the customer criteria andthe merchant reply. In the exemplary configuration shown in FIG. 3, afirst column of indicator 350 may correspond to a name or identificationof a particular criterion. A second column of indicator 350 may provideinformation corresponding to the value of the corresponding customercriterion. A third column of indicator 350 may provide informationcorresponding to a value of the corresponding criterion of the merchantreply. A fourth column of indicator 350 may indicate a variance value360 of the variance between the customer criteria and the merchant replyfor the corresponding item identified in the first column. For example,a price contained in the customer submission may be $500 more than aprice contained in the merchant reply. The corresponding variance value360, which may be determined by tool 70 and transmitted to user device20 and/or merchant device 40, may be $500 or −$500. This variance may bedetermined from the perspective of the customer or the merchant, and maybe provided in a percentage or any other appropriate manner.

In addition to variance value 360, the variance may be represented byone or more indicators 370 that correspond to individual item(s) of thevariance. Indicator 370 may provide a notification whether a particularvariance value 360 represents a benefit to the user, a benefit to themerchant, or a match between the customer submission and the merchantreply. In the example shown in FIG. 3, indicative of the viewpoint ofthe customer, a customer benefit may be represented by an upward-facingchevron or arrow, while a merchant benefit may be represented by adownward-facing chevron or arrow. A match between the customersubmission and the merchant reply may be represented by symbol such asan equal sign (=). Symbols other than these may be employed forindicator 370. Indicators in addition to shape, such as colors, may beincluded as indicators 370. In such an example, the color green maycorrespond to a user benefit, while the color red may correspond to amerchant benefit.

With continued reference to the example of user portal 22, a comparisonentry 320 may be provided to initiate generation of the request fromuser device 20 to comparison tool 70. Comparison entry 320 may allow theuser to provide one or more items of customer criteria. Additionally,comparison entry 320 may facilitate the transmission of the merchantreply from merchant device 40.

Display 300 may also include an update entry 322 that may facilitatereal-time updates of the customer criteria and/or the merchant reply.Interaction with update entry 322 may initiate an update of one or moreportions of comparison indicator 350, including the customer criteria,merchant criteria, and variance value 360 and indicator 370.Additionally or alternatively, update entry 322 may allow any updatedcriteria to be transmitted from user device 20 to merchant device 40 viatool 70, or from merchant device 40 to user device 20 in a similarmanner. Thus, tool 70 may allow a secure process for remotely update thecustomer criteria or merchant reply in real-time.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a computer-implemented method 400including transmitting at least one of a variance or customer criteriato a merchant device 40. In a step 402 of method 400, a customersubmission may be received from user device 20. In the exemplaryenvironment 100 shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the customer criteria includedin the customer submission may be received by comparison tool 70 vianetwork 110. Step 402 may also include receiving customer criteria fromservice system 60, such as customer criteria included in thequalification provided by qualification database 62, and/or costinformation provided by cost database 64. As the qualification fromservice system 60 may correspond to a prequalification offered to acustomer, comparison tool 70 may receive a true or actual qualificationassociated with the user of user device 20.

In a step 404, a request to provide the customer submission may bereceived by tool 70. This request may be generated by user device 20.For example, this request may be generated in response to an interactionwith a comparison entry 320, as described above.

In step 406, tool 70 may receive a merchant reply transmitted frommerchant device 40. The merchant reply may be generated as a response tothe customer submission. The merchant criteria provided in the merchantreply may include one or more items received from product entry 44,qualification entry 46, trade-in entry 48, backend product entry 50, orqualification entry 52, as described above. If desired, a portion or theentirety of the merchant reply may be transmitted by comparison tool 70to user device 20 via user portal 22.

In a step 408, comparison tool 70 may determine the variance between atleast one item of customer criteria and at least one corresponding itemof merchant criteria. Taking the example of the product price componentof the customer criteria and the merchant criteria, tool 70 maydetermine a numerical value representative of the difference betweenthese two items. In one aspect, the variance determined by tool 70 mayinclude, in addition to or instead of a numerical value, a flag or otherindication associated with a benefit associated with the variance. Whenthe item is price, and the price in the merchant reply is a value lowerthan a value contained in the customer criteria, the variance mayinclude a flag that corresponds to a benefit for the user or customer.The variance may also indicate when an item in the customer criteria isequivalent to the respective criterion in the merchant reply.

In a step 410 that may follow step 408, comparison tool 70 may transmitthe variance, the customer criteria, or both, to the merchant device 40.Transmitting the variance may include transmitting the differencebetween an item of customer criteria and a corresponding item ofmerchant criteria. The transmission of the variance may includetransmission of a flag or other indication of a benefit to the customeror merchant, or an indication that the item is equivalent in thecustomer criteria and the merchant criteria. When the customer criteriaare transmitted, at least one item of customer criteria may be providedto the merchant device 40. By providing customer criteria contained inthe qualification, an accurate assessment of a payment may be provided.For example, merchant device 40 may present a value corresponding to amonthly cost (e.g., a total monthly cost value) that corresponds to thequalification. This monthly cost may be presented in display 300 ofmerchant device 40 by comparison indicator 350. Step 410 may alsoinclude transmitting a value that was input via entries 24, 26, 28, or30. In one aspect, step 410 may include transmitting both the varianceand the customer criteria to the merchant device 40.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a computer-implemented method 500 forproviding an updated variance. Method 500 may include a step 502 inwhich a customer submission for a vehicle may be received, e.g., bycomparison tool 70. Step 502 may be performed in a manner similar tostep 402.

In a step 504, a merchant reply may be received by tool 70. Step 504 maybe performed in the manner described above with respect to step 406 ofmethod 400.

Step 506 may be performed based on the customer submission received instep 502 and the merchant reply received in step 504. In one aspect,step 506 may include determining a variance between at least one item ofcustomer criteria and at least one item of merchant criteria. Asdiscussed above, the variance may represent a value, such as a numericalvalue or a percentage, and in at least some embodiments, an indicationof a benefit associated with this value.

Step 508 may be performed based on the variance determined in step 506.Step 508 may include causing a display device (e.g., via input andoutput ports 650, FIG. 6) to display an indication corresponding to thevariance. For example, with reference to FIG. 3, display 300 presentedon user device 20, merchant device 40, or both, may include a comparisonindicator 350 presented via user portal 22 and merchant portal 42. Thecomparison indicator 350 may include a display of the variance value 360and indicator 370.

In step 510, one or more items of customer criteria may be updated ormodified. Additionally or alternatively, step 510 may include updatingor modifying one or more items of the merchant reply. In one example, amerchant may update a value of the down payment by interacting withentry 46. After changing the value via entry 46 (or any otherappropriate entry), update entry 322 may then be selected. In responseto the change in the value of the down payment item via entry 46, tool70 may recalculate one or more criteria contained in the merchant reply.For example, qualification entry 52 and the corresponding portion ofcomparison indicator 350, such as an APR, may be updated based on thechange in entry 46. In one aspect, an updated qualification may bereceived from service system 60 in response to a change introduced viabudget entry 26, 46. Merchant device 40 may communicate with tool 70,for example, to retrieve an updated qualification and update thecorresponding portion of comparison indicator 350. This updatedqualification may be employed to update qualification entry 52. Thus,the qualification may be updated in real-time by updating one or moreentries. Additionally, a monthly payment portion of the comparisonindicator 350 may be updated based on the updated criteria. Once one ormore items of the customer criteria and merchant reply have been updatedas necessary, tool 70 user device 20, and/or merchant device 40 maydetermine an updated variance.

In step 512, display 300 may be updated to cause the display device todisplay an indication corresponding to the update variance as determinedin step 510. This may include updating one or more elements ofcomparison indicator 350, as well as variance values 360 and indicators370.

The disclosed methods and systems may facilitate the provision ofcustomer criteria from a customer to a merchant 12, including secureprovision of a qualification corresponding to the customer. The user andthe merchant may be able to enter, revise, or otherwise update one ormore items of customer criteria and/or merchant criteria on a sharedinterface on the user device 20 or the merchant device 40. The updatedcriteria may be used to securely receive an updated qualification. Theupdated criteria, which may include the updated qualification, may bepresented by a user device 20, a merchant device 40, or both. Thus,barriers to communication between the merchant and the user are reducedand both parties are able to readily understand how changes inindividual elements affect the overall agreement. Additionally, aqualification may be received and updated without requiring a creditinquiry, allowing an accurate evaluation of an interest rate, financedamount, and/or monthly payment without adversely affecting a creditscore of the user.

FIG. 6 depicts an exemplary system 600 that may execute techniquespresented herein. FIG. 6 is a simplified functional block diagram of acomputer that may be configured to execute techniques described herein,according to exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure.Specifically, the computer (or “platform” as it may not a be a singlephysical computer infrastructure) may include a data communicationinterface 660 for packet data communication. The platform also mayinclude a central processing unit (“CPU”) 620, in the form of one ormore processors, for executing program instructions. The platform mayinclude an internal communication bus 610, and the platform also mayinclude a program storage and/or a data storage for various data filesto be processed and/or communicated by the platform such as ROM 630 andRAM 640, although the system 600 may receive programming and data vianetwork communications. The system 600 also may include input and outputports 650 to connect with input and output devices such as keyboards,mice, touchscreens, monitors, displays, etc. Of course, the varioussystem functions may be implemented in a distributed fashion on a numberof similar platforms, to distribute the processing load. Alternatively,the systems may be implemented by appropriate programming of onecomputer hardware platform.

The general discussion of this disclosure provides a brief, generaldescription of a suitable computing environment in which the presentdisclosure may be implemented. In one embodiment, any of the disclosedsystems, methods, and/or graphical user interfaces may be executed by orimplemented by a computing system consistent with or similar to thatdepicted and/or explained in this disclosure. Although not required,aspects of the present disclosure are described in the context ofcomputer-executable instructions, such as routines executed by a dataprocessing device, e.g., a server computer, wireless device, and/orpersonal computer. Those skilled in the relevant art will appreciatethat aspects of the present disclosure can be practiced with othercommunications, data processing, or computer system configurations,including: Internet appliances, hand-held devices (including personaldigital assistants (“PDAs”)), wearable computers, all manner of cellularor mobile phones (including Voice over IP (“VoIP”) phones), dumbterminals, media players, gaming devices, virtual reality devices,multi-processor systems, microprocessor-based or programmable consumerelectronics, set-top boxes, network PCs, mini-computers, mainframecomputers, and the like. Indeed, the terms “computer,” “server,” and thelike, are generally used interchangeably herein, and refer to any of theabove devices and systems, as well as any data processor.

Aspects of the present disclosure may be embodied in a special purposecomputer and/or data processor that is specifically programmed,configured, and/or constructed to perform one or more of thecomputer-executable instructions explained in detail herein. Whileaspects of the present disclosure, such as certain functions, aredescribed as being performed exclusively on a single device, the presentdisclosure also may be practiced in distributed environments wherefunctions or modules are shared among disparate processing devices,which are linked through a communications network, such as a Local AreaNetwork (“LAN”), Wide Area Network (“WAN”), and/or the Internet.Similarly, techniques presented herein as involving multiple devices maybe implemented in a single device. In a distributed computingenvironment, program modules may be located in both local and/or remotememory storage devices.

Aspects of the present disclosure may be stored and/or distributed onnon-transitory computer-readable media, including magnetically oroptically readable computer discs, hard-wired or preprogrammed chips(e.g., EEPROM semiconductor chips), nanotechnology memory, biologicalmemory, or other data storage media. Alternatively, computer implementedinstructions, data structures, screen displays, and other data underaspects of the present disclosure may be distributed over the Internetand/or over other networks (including wireless networks), on apropagated signal on a propagation medium (e.g., an electromagneticwave(s), a sound wave, etc.) over a period of time, and/or they may beprovided on any analog or digital network (packet switched, circuitswitched, or other scheme).

Program aspects of the technology may be thought of as “products” or“articles of manufacture” typically in the form of executable codeand/or associated data that is carried on or embodied in a type ofmachine-readable medium. “Storage” type media include any or all of thetangible memory of the computers, processors or the like, or associatedmodules thereof, such as various semiconductor memories, tape drives,disk drives and the like, which may provide non-transitory storage atany time for the software programming. All or portions of the softwaremay at times be communicated through the Internet or various othertelecommunication networks. Such communications, for example, may enableloading of the software from one computer or processor into another, forexample, from a management server or host computer of the mobilecommunication network into the computer platform of a server and/or froma server to the mobile device. Thus, another type of media that may bearthe software elements includes optical, electrical and electromagneticwaves, such as used across physical interfaces between local devices,through wired and optical landline networks and over various air-links.The physical elements that carry such waves, such as wired or wirelesslinks, optical links, or the like, also may be considered as mediabearing the software. As used herein, unless restricted tonon-transitory, tangible “storage” media, terms such as computer ormachine “readable medium” refer to any medium that participates inproviding instructions to a processor for execution.

Other embodiments of the disclosure will be apparent to those skilled inthe art from consideration of the specification and practice of theinvention disclosed herein. It is intended that the specification andexamples be considered as exemplary only, with a true scope and spiritof the invention being indicated by the following claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:causing a customer device associated with a customer to display a userportal that includes a plurality of interactive objects configured toreceive input of a plurality of customer criteria from the customer viathe customer device; receiving, from the customer device, a customersubmission including a plurality of customer criteria entered by thecustomer via the plurality of interactive objects; receiving, from thecustomer device, a request, entered by the customer via one of theplurality of interactive objects, to provide the customer submission toa merchant device; in response to receiving the request, automaticallycausing the merchant device to display a merchant portal that includes afurther plurality of interactive objects configured to receive input ofa plurality of merchant criteria from a merchant associated with themerchant device; receiving, from the merchant device, a reply includinga plurality of merchant criteria entered via the merchant via thefurther plurality of interactive objects; in response to receiving thereply, automatically: determining a variance between the customercriteria and the merchant criteria; and causing the merchant device toupdate the display of the merchant portal so as to include at least oneof the variance or the customer criteria.
 2. The method of claim 1,further including receiving qualification information from a servicedatabase.
 3. The method of claim 2, wherein the customer submissionfurther includes at least one customer criterion based on thequalification information received from the service database.
 4. Themethod of claim 3, wherein determining the variance includes determininga difference between the qualification information and a merchantqualification information included in the merchant criteria.
 5. Themethod of claim 4, wherein the qualification information includes one ormore of a loan term and a loan interest rate.
 6. The method of claim 1,wherein the plurality of customer criteria includes two or more of avehicle price, a loan term, a down payment, a trade-in value, aninsurance cost, a merchant fee, a loan interest rate, an amount offinancing, a service contract cost, a tax cost, a title fee, a licensefee, or a monthly payment amount.
 7. The method of claim 1, furtherincluding prior to causing the merchant device to update the display ofthe merchant portal to include the at least one of the variance or thecustomer criteria, requesting an authentication from the merchantdevice.
 8. The method of claim 1, further including receiving an updatedreply from the merchant device.
 9. The method of claim 8, furtherincluding updating the variance based on the updated reply.
 10. Themethod of claim 9, further including causing the customer device toupdate the display of the user portal so as to include at least one ofthe updated variance or the updated reply.
 11. The method of claim 1,further including receiving an updated customer submission.
 12. Themethod of claim 11, further including determining an updated variancebased on the updated customer submission and causing the merchant deviceto update the display of the merchant portal so as to include at leastone of the updated variance or the updated customer submission.
 13. Themethod of claim 1, further including determining when the variancereflects a customer benefit for one or more of the plurality of customercriteria.
 14. A computer-implemented method comprising: causing acustomer device associated with a customer to display a user portal thatincludes a plurality of interactive objects configured to receive inputof a plurality of customer criteria from the customer via the customerdevice; receiving, from the customer device, a customer submissionincluding a plurality of customer criteria entered by the customer viathe plurality of interactive objects; in response to receiving thecustomer submission, automatically causing a merchant device to displaya merchant portal that includes a further plurality of interactiveobjects configured to receive input of a plurality of merchant criteriafrom a merchant associated with the merchant device; receiving, from themerchant device, a reply including a plurality of merchant criteriaentered via the merchant via the further plurality of interactiveobjects; in response to receiving the reply, automatically: determininga variance between the customer criteria and the merchant criteria;causing at least one of the merchant device or the customer device toupdate a display of the merchant portal or user portal, respectively, soas to include an indication corresponding to the variance; determiningan updated variance in response to receiving one or more of an updatedcustomer submission or an updated reply; and causing the at least one ofthe merchant device or the customer device to update the display of themerchant portal or user portal, respectively, so as to update theindication based on the updated variance.
 15. The method of claim 14,wherein the determining the updated variance includes updating at leastone criterion of the plurality of merchant criteria with informationreceived by the merchant device.
 16. The method of claim 14, furtherincluding determining when the variance reflects a customer benefit, andwherein the indication corresponds to the customer benefit.
 17. Themethod of claim 14, wherein the updated variance is determined based onan adjusted customer criterion included in an updated customersubmission.
 18. The method of claim 14, wherein the plurality ofcustomer criteria includes two or more of a vehicle price, a loan term,a down payment, a trade-in value, an insurance cost, a merchant fee, aloan interest rate, an amount of financing, a service contract cost, atax cost, a title fee, license fee, or a monthly payment amount.
 19. Asystem for providing customer information to a vehicle merchant, thesystem comprising: a memory storing instructions; and at least oneprocessor executing the instructions to perform a process including:causing a customer device associated with a customer to display a userportal that includes a plurality of interactive objects configured toreceive input of a plurality of customer criteria from the customer viathe customer device; receiving, from the customer device, a customersubmission including a plurality of customer criteria entered by thecustomer via the plurality of interactive objects; in response toreceiving the customer submission, automatically causing a merchantdevice to display a merchant portal that includes a further plurality ofinteractive objects configured to receive input of a plurality ofmerchant criteria from a merchant associated with the merchant device;receiving, from the merchant device, a reply including a plurality ofmerchant criteria entered via the merchant via the further plurality ofinteractive objects and including at least one of a vehicle price, atrade-in value, a merchant fee, a service contract, a tax cost, a titlefee, or a license fee; in response to receiving the reply,automatically: determining a variance between the customer criteria andthe merchant criteria; and causing the merchant device to update thedisplay of the merchant portal so as to include the variance, whereinthe variance reflects a customer benefit, and wherein the updating thedisplay of the merchant portal includes displaying an indicationcorresponding to the customer benefit.